PEOPLE CAN ONLY KILL POLITICIANS, NOT THE MYSTICS.

People can kill the politician because the politician exists only on people's votes, their opinions. They can withdraw their opinion and you are nobody. The throne of the politician is carried by the mediocre crowd; any moment it can change its mind, any moment somebody else can satisfy it more, can be more compromising with the mediocre people. It can change immediately. YOU CANNOT DESTROY A RELIGIOUS MAN; THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE. You can kill him, but even in your killing him he remains deathless. THAT'S THE WHOLE MEANING OF THE RESURRECTION. People crucified Jesus, but they could not -- that is the meaning of the parable. I am not saying that it is an historical fact, that he walked again on the earth. People killed him, but people can kill only the self that they have given, they cannot kill the self that has been discovered. It is beyond their reach, it is beyond their vision. How can they kill it? They cannot even see it. The people who were crucifying Jesus were absolutely unaware of the person whom they were confronting. Who was this man that they were killing? They were killing God! They were killing one of the most significant expressions of God on the earth, but they were blissfully unaware. That's why Jesus said, "FATHER, FORGIVE THESE PEOPLE, BECAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING. They don't know me, and what they are killing is their own idea of me. They cannot kill me." That's why people like Jesus, Socrates, Buddha, are not at all worried about what you think about them. THEY KNOW THEMSELVES; YOUR THINKING MAKES NO DIFFERENCE. Your thinking will make a difference to you, but it makes no difference to them. They go on living on their own; THEY LIVE AN AUTHENTIC LIFE.

My sannyasins have to remember it: DON'T HANKER FOR A SELF FROM THE OUTSIDE. It is a wastage of time, and the people can withdraw it at any moment. And their minds are not very stable, they constantly change. Their minds are not very integrated, they cannot retain any state. They don't know of any continuity in their being; they are fragments. One day they will support and praise you, another day they will pull you down and condemn you. This is what has been happening down the ages, the whole history is full of it. ONE DAY THEY CALL YOU GREAT, ANOTHER THEY START CONDEMNING YOU. In fact, WHOMSOEVER THEY CALL GREAT THEY ARE BOUND TO CONDEMN. There is a rationale behind it: whomsoever the mediocre person calls great, he starts feeling inferior in comparison to the person he has made great. Nobody likes to feel inferior. Then sooner or later, he takes revenge so that he can pull you down and can show you that you are "made of mud as I am made of mud". FIRST THEY PUT YOU ON GREAT PEDESTALS, ONLY TO PULL YOU DOWN. They enjoy the game very much. Beware of it! DON'T DEPEND ON WHAT OTHERS SAY. It is utterly irrelevant. All that matters in the ultimate sense is what you know about yourself.... NEVER DEPEND ON OTHERS' OPINIONS. Who are they? How can they give a character certificate? ... Remember, IF YOU ARE ASKING FOR A SELF TO BE INVENTED WITH THE HELP OF OTHERS, YOU WILL REMAIN MEDIOCRE. You will never be the flowering of intelligence. INTELLIGENCE COMES ONLY WHEN YOU DISCOVER YOURSELF. Intelligence is the shadow of that discovery; the great exhilaration that happens when you have stumbled upon yourself face-to-face, when you have encountered yourself, when you know who you are. Suddenly you are rooted in existence, suddenly you are beyond time. Even death cannot kill you and fire cannot burn you. You are eternal. OSHO The Secret Ch #11, The lion and the fox am in Buddha Hall